Phonemic Inventories Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Phonemic Inventories - Assignment Example The thesis below will discuss the smallest elements of spoken language. One element discussed on this topic is phones versus letters. It is said that human language speech is not only built through face-to-face conversations but also through expressions made through the phones. For instance, if the listener says the word â€Å"puppy!† one will get the meaning through interpretation of messages ( Fountain and Bishoffs 5 ). The meaning of this language is that the person is astonished and even if the visual channels are entirely blocked, the person on the other end will get the message thus the sounds of language are sufficient to allow us to express the meaning. In the word puppy as used in the example, the first word used just a little air is used, very quiet and does not take a longer time. The second sound â€Å"uh†. The third sound is the same as the first one and the final sound is to the vowel â€Å"be†. Single speech sounds are referred by linguistics as phones. These words are separated through a method referred to as orthographic representation, which is specifically designed to write phone of speech occurring to humans naturally (Bartels 221). From the word puppy, the first word appears as pApi in the IPA. Comparing the two the first letters â€Å" P† in the sequences are the same. From the standard English, the letter P usually stand for the sound, but not usually stand for that sound for instance, from the word phrase, the P is silent hence no sound is made during it pronunciation ( Kenneth 79). In the IPA, the letter P always stands for the sound. The second sound in the orthography â€Å" A† in the IPA is represented by the symbol A meaning that the sounds are different. There is no sound in the symbol A, so it is not meaningful ( Kunter 224 ). In the sequence, there is an appearance of the letter â€Å"p† again. The two identical letters sound different from a single letter, and an individual ought to know the